snow bunting

Echoing Toughts

I know.. same picture as before, but I like the cropped version much better.

Its been an introspective kind of day. I don't know whether to blame the late night viewing of The Shawshank Redemption, The cheesy Hillary Duff flick or several hours of listening to the Vitamin String Quartet. Perhaps it is the pretty close to all the time lightness that has through my internal clock for a complete loop.

Some of the thoughts, if not most, have been standard self examination of goals, choices, beliefs, philosophies and some the simple joy of listening to a violin's rendition of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence" I feel like I've been told that one day I'll grow up and be 100% sure of who I am and what I want... yet watching those same questions play across the lives of my high school students I feel sometimes I aught to warn them that in reality, most people never answer those questions definitively. Perhaps for spans of time, you will feel certain of the answer - but every day of your life leaves its tracks on your soul changing you again and again... so how can the question "Who am I?" not come back to haunt you eventually. Thus far, my road has been a convoluted and winding one - and perhaps one question I might ask is of the egg and chicken variety. Is my failure to answer the question of who I am due to the winding road or is it the cause of it?

I think, when I was writing this post in my head while staring out the window at the horizon, that I had a lot more to add - that there were a few topics I wanted to explore in writing, but then I read a few articles in the Toronto Star and found some new things to blog about....

The government of Canada wasn't doing what they wanted fast enough, so 2000 of the Tamil people of Toronto walked onto the Gardiner (on Mother's day) and stopped traffic. Now, I gather from what I've read, that there are 2 sides to the story about what is going on in Sri Lanka and the truth is, as always, war is not pretty and I think this is a fairly nasty one with both sides having plenty of blood on their hands. I have no intention in taking sides with either group nor do I have any problem with a group lobbying the government through proper channels for attention to an international crisis. I think it is terrible that innocent people are dying and that even if they are surviving that their lives, communities and economies have been destroyed and I do sypathize with their family members here who are feeling powerless to help their familys back home. I just don't like their choice of tactics.

My concern is that this type of "negotiating" should not be tolerated in Canada. This is a lot like a bank robber or kidnapper making demands with a gun head to the victims head. Most concessions achieved from a party who negotiated under duress are carried out without enthusiasm. I don't know that this will buy them the willing ear of the federal government nor even the sympathy of the common Canadian or journalist. Very few people feel inclined to cooperate when demands are made of them in this fashion, in fact, given that the we have the police and army resources to easily remove the protesters from area - the only reason they are still there is because the governments are stalling until they come up with a politically palatable way to deal with the situation - and so the protesters have accomplished little other than to sour public opinion against them and annoy the very people they want help from. For all I know, the government is leaving them where they are on purpose to ensure public opinion is soured against them. After this demonstration, even if the government had been interested in doing something about the situation in Sri Lanka, they now will have to weigh their actions against public opinion and they probably do not dare to look as if they are giving into these kinds of demands. The protesters would have been far better off to get public opinion behind them in a positive way.

Sigh. Why can't people just get along?

And it is now nearly dark and I've rambled on longer than I planned. The sun is still without sunspots and it feels weird that it is May and yet still winter, but rarely night. I do have a nice little stockpile of pictures... so hopefully I'll kick the trend of intermittant blogging in Nunavut, at least a bit.

Reflections on my Life

I went outside and spent a bit of time watching our local Hamlet Day competitions - in particular barrel racing and caribou skin drag - both being Skidoo or "machine" events. It was actually fairly warm and the wind fairly calm. So, now I can't use lack of pictures.

The northern lights were out for the last time that I'll likely see them at all up here. Unfortunately, even at midnight, the sky was too bright to see them well. In about 2 weeks there will be no such thing as civil twilight... which is to say that it'll be mostly light all of the time.

Blog-Appology

Its clear that I've forgotten that I own a blog for the last several weeks. Its clear that I'm hurting for new photos (thus the picture of a decomissioned power plant) and content (thus the filler made up of my poetry from Gr. 9). I will try to do better - although, no garentees.

The days have started to fly by - not for lack of hours of daylight, but there is a lot of stuff on the go for sure. So... I do have stuff I need to finish up this evening - so here is a few quick updates.

Weather Predictions - the first predicted temperature above zero for BL is set for this coming Wednesday - which probably means the actual temperature is going to be -30 with winds of 50-70 kmh - but still.. there is some reason to hope.

Powerless - I really really meant to write a post about our mandatory rotating "earth hours" this week past, but whatever witty thoughts I had to share and insights are long buried under all the day to day things that go through my brain and I don't have the enthusiasm I need about the topic to do it justice. I'll just say that it was a good experience and I learned that I'm more addicted to checking my email than I thought, but perfectly content to use the lack of power as an excuse to live off cold cereal and rice-cakes with cream cheese. I did miss my radio though (when I use the word radio... please interpret it as itunes). But I did try to make up for the lack of music by pulling out ye olde guitar - only to discover that I'm badly in need of extensive practice before I play in front of anyone.

Music I'm Anticipating - Both Dala and NLX have new albums coming out in the next few months and I'm looking forward to both albums and maybe even seeing one or both of them perform. The new DM album has provided some good workout tunes too!

Cooking - I've been busy cooking away - I made apple crisp, chicken vegetable soup, salad, my mom's chicken and peaches recipe and tomorrow night I think I'm going to try and tackle spaghetti sauce as I'm down to the last 2 servings of stew.

And thats is all for now folks....

Jennith

Eyeballs

Eyeballs hanging from the ceiling
Those who watch, but have no feeling
Do not care that we are dying,
Eyeballs with no tears for crying

Foolish, thoughtless, mindless beings
Do not understand their seeings
Just hang there from the ceiling, staring
With not hearts nor minds for caring

There is a set of eyes inside
Eyes unopened, eyes untried
Eyes to which cannot be lied
Filled with tears left long uncried

Through the darkenss, beyond the blind
Can inner sight save all mankind
Stop the hatred with one mind
Look deep inside what can you find

Close your eyelids, cease to stare
You will not see the truth out there
All the wisdom that you need
Is inside, but must be freed

A vision seeking inner peace
Balancing tension with release
Wishing war and waste would cease
In a world thats full of greed and grease

Centered breathing, shifting views
Tuning out the grinding news
Hear the whispers of your soul
Save the world by first being whole

Slowly carefully, find the strength
To bear this burden for great length
Let your walls fade into dust
Until their thoughts, upon you thrust

Thoughtwaves baying in your head
Guilty, hateful, worried, dread
If each of us knew all unsaid
The future would a new path tread

Here is a bit of what at least started as a grade 9 poetry assignment for English. I found it written on a battered writing folder from highschool covered in pictures of my friends and full of dog-eared pages of guitar music - mostly campfire songs. All my friends have so much hair.. well, actually I think Em has the same hair cut and Jason may have gotten shaggier looking since grade 11 - but all said - it makes me smile. I haven't written any poetry in a long while - unless you count the odd random bit of verse or a handful of haiku poems on this blog.

For those of you who are baffled by what the poem could possibly be about. Keep in mind that at this point in my life I'd read Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" a few too many times and that we all thought that the idea of telepathy was cool - I also liked drawing pictures of eyes - being one of a few things I could do and have them come out as a recognizable objects... Actually I should also note that the discontinuity of the poem has to do with the fact that it was written at several different times - I only handed in the first two verses and I'm not sure they had to do with telepathy at all... but honest, I can explain... I was in Grade 9!!!

A Picture of Deep Summer

Lazily hunting
Bee drinks nectar from asters
Under a warm sun

Kaylee, Gaurdian of the Garden, Working hard

Here is my squirrel and rabbit patrol hard at work... uh... sleeping in the late afternoon sun.

Clearly suffering from Gardening Withdrawal

Something about this shot just made me need to share it - Happy Easter Everyone.

And I'll have to make time tomorrow to take pictures of Spring in the North. It was so warm (-10 C) today that I went out with out snow pants, in my insulated rubber boots and my southern winter jacket - and I didn't even wear mitts... at least for the 10 minutes that I was outside....

But... all these garden pictures are making miss the smell of dirt and cedar mulch and my daily routine of checking each plant for bugs, squirrel problems and aparently.. my daily garden photography and my furry gardening partner - Kaylee who did the all important job of chasing wayward rabbits and squirrels away from my favourite plants.

Before Shot

This is what the woodland garden looked much earlier in the season and it looked a lot like a heap of leaves before that....

I wonder how it'll look this summer.

Wildflowers waking up

Woodland plants and bulbs are popping up down south. The trillium picture was probably taken just shy of 1 year ago. Maybe the last week of April or the first week of May. I assume that means that my woodland garden is also starting to wake up... and the gardener is me is wondering if my trilliums survived. What will come up first - will the violets and bricknell's geranium take over. Will the Jacob's ladder come back... will I have to go at the strawberries with a chainsaw. How did the lily of the valley do? Did the squirrels eat all the crocusses and daffodils? Tulips?? Will the Lupine recover from the torments of earwigs and slugs? When will the columbine flower? Will it survive without me to nuture it??

I've instructured the current caretakers to provide photographic proof of its survival when they get a chance... I hope that I can whip it into shape (i.e. mulch it and tidy the edges of the beds) quickly. I don't think there will be much need to plant this year. Mostly this year will be clipping and tying back - weeding and fertalizing.

LOL.. look for pictures from me in June or July

Letting Go of the Old

I finished all my Nunavut permenent resident type paperwork today. It feels weird. I never thought I felt anything for my home province except a slight sense of embarassment to be coming from a place that many people in NB thought was annoying for thinking itself the center of the universe... I even came from the part of the province that people in other parts of the province thought was a bit self important. (This isn't percisely true - I'm absolutely in love with the landscape in my home province and I don't actually find Ontarians to be as snotty as people think, but I just didn't think I was attached emotionally to the idea of being one of the folks from the center of the universe) But I've always had a trillium on my drivers licence and as much as I really like Nunavut, I'm feeling just a twinge of sadness to let my trilliums go - I'm sure it'll pass, but as much as I've waited this long merely to avoid the paperwork - it feels like a big step. I guess its making a very symbolic commitment - not that I had any doubts about coming back, but I feel changed like I've had to put both feet on the same side of the fence.

Its not a real change - my plans are the same - I'm just going through the "letting go phase" and I think I'll quickly find that the ID you have in your wallet does not have any impact on what parts of the country you hold dear.

Cedar Waxwings

LOL - I love these birds. I can watch them for hours.

Inukshuk on the horizon

I've been terrible at writing lately. I don't even have Waywayup's excuse of spring fever. I guess I just haven't been on this 'puter much and I haven't taken too many pictures.

Yesterday I could have kicked myself. I walked to the airport across the lake at sunset and it was beautiful and my Camera was not with me. No promises for posts or pictures this week. I'm resurrecting my thesis for Easter and I'm going to try and finish my draft even it if makes me crazy. My plans are for being completely antisocial. Today is tie-up loose ends day.

The photo was taken in Rankin en route to the regional science fair. I'm very drawn to the idea of Inuksuit - there is something very appealing about them. Hopefully, this spring and next fall I'll be able to get out more and see some more traditional ones.

But first... I have a thesis to finish.... and my bonus is if I finish it this week I get to have a summer vacation and if I don't I get to spend another summer inside with my computer wishing that I was hiking, gardening, camping, visiting friends, driving 2 lane undivided highway in northern Ontario or even maybe dirtroading it up the Dempster - looking forward to the experience of changing a tire in a trackless wilderness under the midnight sun.... as suggested as a highlight by Up Here magazine.....

See... lots of motivation.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Nunavut
Happy Birthday to you

Here is the GIANT cake that was shared with the folk of the Hamlet. It was great to have everyone together to celebrate. I'm not sure if the kids thought it was as cool as the older people to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of Canada's newest territory. But I remember back to that age.. I guess I wasn't that keyed up about the 200 year anniversary of Ontario either... Regardless, I think they had a good time and enjoyed the event and the icing on the cake was awesome too.

I arrived in Repulse Bay on April 1st 2000 and got to see the 1 year anniversary too.... They didn't have a cake that required 6 adults to move though - although they did have the Governor general and some crazy Australian's. I'm just honoured to be part of this celebration and to have the chance to live here. Its a cool (and sometimes cold) place filled with an awful lot of very inspiring and good-hearted folk.

The Frozen Ocean

This photo is part of the still leaving Repulse and heading home set. I don't think it is too far from town as we are still relatively low to the ground. I like the way that this picture shows the ridges of ice around the land. I love the contrast between the "smooth" ice and the bumpy rocky land. Can you tell I'm a window person on a plane? Don't need the isle.. I have no plans to cram myself into a scuzzy air bathroom unless the need is dire. Staring out the window (especially if it is clean and not over the wing) is my favourite part.

Well, the crowning awesomeness for today was the arrival of my knitpicks order. Their colours are awesome. I have one named tidepool heather.. its teal and turquoise... It reminds me more of mountain lakes than tide pools... but it is wondering what it'll be when its all knit up. Now I need a little project, something that I can pick up and forget for a few weeks as the sis of doom is looming.

Sigh... well... here it is.. my island of calm.. I'm going to enjoy it and not complain too much.. I'd better get some odds and sods done before heading to sleep.

The Stars have Spoken

Its Monday, and I worked all weekend, so I have no excuse for this bubbly-enthusiastic calm feeling I have except that I feel like I've swept the deck clear (at least partially) of extra burdens and I've made some decisions that I'm happy with.

Here is the talk from the stars (aka my ever freaky horoscope)

"A vague sense of oppression is beginning to lift. You can shed even more of your burden if you now make a few timely choices. You don't owe anything to anyone now." (The Star)

I read this after I decided that I felt that way and made the decisions... so go figure. One of my decisions is to eventually adopt a Malamute into my family and before you freak out mom - eventually could mean 10 years and it will most certainly be 12 to 24 months and it may never happen - but its left me with something to research for a few months and really you can't beat puppy pictures.

Why a malamute? They are smart, beautiful, poised, independent, clean, expressive, friendly dogs. I know a charming one named Kaylee and I miss her a bunch. She's good for sitting on cold feet, listening patiently to your problems and although it takes for ever to walk around the neighbourhood - she at least has personality to make up for it as she checks out every shrub, tree, bush, dead animal and squirrel.

Anywho... I was just feeling so cheery and amused by my horoscope that I had to write and share... and now I have to learn more about caribou.

Up, Up and Away...

I got a nice shot out the window...

On the Arctic Circle

Here is the arch sitting on the arctic circle (66 Degrees North). This was taken shortly before we left. As you can see the wind was whipping up the snow and we were lucky to be able to leave. As it was, the plane was late and I think we were all relieved to sit down when the plane got there. After that it was pretty much smooth sailing.... It was a great visit and it was good to see the place that left me with such good memories of the north that I was drawn back here so many years later.

The End of the Road

When I did my placement in Repulse Bay, I stayed out here at the far end of town. It must be even more breathtaking in the summer and fall, with the houses perched on the hills near the bay looking out over town and distant rocky ridges. I recalled often seeing arctic hare while I was there - but no Ukaliq this day.

Drifting Into the Future

The wind is a powerful force in shaping the winter landscape of the arctic. It can be savage and howling one day to be gentle the next. It carves drifts with intricate patterns and ridges and gravity defying overhangs. I've been learning a lot about weather the last few weeks. The impact of topography on weather is baffling and here is the exciting fact of the day.... Baker Lake owing to its location and topography holds the record for Blizzard days in the North. An amazing 20.1 days per year where blizzard conditions are occurring. Now I have long lost track of the number of blizzard days this year.. but I'm tempted to suggest that Arviat and Rankin may be out blizzarding us this year and we have a lot less snow than Repulse Bay.

The last 3 weeks of my life have been both busy and rewarding. I'm one of those people who actually sometimes does better when I'm busy, but only for a period of time. I'm glad to finally have had a done day. I finally unpacked from my trip last weekend this morning and I've had a very low key relaxing day where the most exciting thing I've done is make 13 meals of soup (cabbage/broccoli/tomato is the flavour of the week). I'm heading to the Northern and then work for probably the rest of the evening in hopes of freeing up some time tomorrow to enjoy the beautiful weather... although I plan on taking a fairly long route to work... get in some exercise and enjoy the sunshine. But I thought I'd better post here quickly, before my readers started to wonder if I had abandoned this blog entirely. I haven't even been on other people's blogs, not even my brothers. I'm embarrassed to say that the last time I was there was Jan 20 or so..... and that there are a tonne of adorable pictures that have cropped up since there of my adorable and growing nephews. I'm looking forward to spending some time with them this summer....

We are 3/4 through our year and I'm surprised how quickly time has gone. My plans are a little bit up in the air for the summer, but they were never the type of plans that require a lot of preplanning. I want to do some camping. I'd really like to make it out west to see my brother's family in Alberta and the rockies and visit the many folk I know in AB and BC and then it would be nice to make it to New Brunswick and Thunder Bay and Ottawa. I don't know how much time I'm going to have and my garden will need a few weeks of work and there are a few spots in my backyard I am overdue for visiting. I haven't camped in Algqonquin in a couple of summers and I'd really like to do a backpacking trip... but I also want to spend some time here when I'm not working to enjoy this part of the world..... ah well... one day at a time and I guess I'll just keep dreaming about all the things I could do if there were more hours in the day and days in the year.

I like my steak very rare

This guy didn't have eyes for anything but his supper. I didn't see any dogs hooked up to a sled while I was in Repulse, but I know that when I was there last I saw quite a few dog drawn qamutiq (Kamatik).

As the crow flies

I am aware that this is a Raven. I should probably write more, but I was dying to post this one up and I don't have time to write more than this sentence...

Nothing Repulsive about Naujaat

I had the opportunity to travel to Naujaat for the regional science fair. Its been almost exactly 9 years since I did my student teaching here and there have been lots of changes (new Co-op and a renovated Northern, new Hamlet building and a lot more trucks), but the school is very much the same and the people are still among the friendliest that I've ever met and far from being repulsive, the town is extremely photogenic.

Fish HaT. cRaZy, SwImMy FiSh HaT!

I know that I've been neglecting my blog horribly. I haven't forgotten it.. I've just been well busy with the rest of my life... and will likely continue to be sporadic for at least the next two weeks... after that.. my life might get more normal or the weather warm enough to make outdoor photography more pleasant.

Our Science Fair was a sucess and there were a lot of great projects. The kids were great, the judges were great and my coworkers were great.... and now we are off to the regionals in a week (part of why I'm going to be busy). So, wish us luck.

As for the hat... I'm in love.. it was a bit tedious to knit.. its all stockingette stitch... but I got to try some new skills.. Short row shaping, picking up stitches in the middle of the fabric, sewing seams and adding eyes. Its a comfy, stretchy hat. The pattern is available online at http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/PATTfishy.php. I think I'm going to do one in Cascade 220 - the colours lend themselves more to crazy fish hats... I want something that screams tropical.

Anywho... I'm still in running full tilt mode and I'd better not lose too much momentum... I just have more things to do that hours in the day. I was actually vaguely bitter about losing an hour to daylight savings time... I wanted that hour... it wasn't fair of them to take it awy and much as I liked having the extra hour back in the fall.

Surface Tension

Ah... the properties of water are so cool. We are playing with bouyancy today - well, assuming that the wind dies in time for us to have school this afternoon.

I should have some pent up blogging in me, but this morning I can't think of single thing to write about. Not one poem or one thought.

I got up the usual time this morning and did a nice bit of yoga, so perhaps I've relaxed the thoughts out of me and thus.... (beware of upcoming pun).... I don't have any surface tension to speak about.

So, I'm going go be useful and maybe get some new pictures this weekend. Although, it is supposed to be bitterly cold, so I don't know if I'll get out. I'll just have to wait and see.

Cheers,

Jennith

Idle Hands Make More Socks

If you take all those minutes you spend waiting, whether it is travelling on a plane, waiting at the airport, standing in line, breaks, pauses, downtime, waiting for the bathroom and even between the calling of numbers during bingo, and knit - you too can have a sock and a bit in less than a week. (I'm in the early stages of the cuff on the second sock). At some point in my life, I might have worried that folk would think me odd to pull out my knitting in odd places, but honestly, most people have reacted positively and its definately started more conversations with strangers than I can count on my fingers. My hope though, is that it inspires other people to knit. I think it is one of the most relaxing and rewarding hobbies that I've ever picked up. (Merci Gabriel) and despite people's protests that they aren't coordinated enough or patient enough to knit - well, I'm living proof that neither quality is needed. One only needs to try and decipher my hand-writing to know that my fine motor skills are insufficient for writing personal letters, let alone being a brain surgeon and while I have patience of a sort - I'm not sure its what they mean when they talk about knitting. I may be patient with people - but honestly.. its actually my impatience that leads me to knitting. I simply hate being idle. I hate waiting and I even find it hard to sit through a whole TV show sometimes. But when I'm knitting - I can do all of these tasks without any trouble and I can still be social and aware of my surroundings at the same time (difficult when deeply engrossed in a book) and the best part is that you end up with things at the end of it!

This seems to be the year of the sock for me. In the last 12 months I've knit 2 pairs of of "fair-isle"ish type socks and this is my 5th pair of kroys socks. Last year I knit a lot more hats (only 1 this year) and scarves (only 3 this year). I do have a sweater to tackle. However, I do need to knit one more two-handed fair-isle project before I take on the sweater - or maybe two. I really want to get my technique perfect before I take it on. I also am still hoping to make a dead fish hat and maybe a pair of Omingmack slippers. There are a few scarf patterns that would make nice quick knits and I really want to try some felting. I'd also like to make something with cables (??socks) and some regular hats (also maybe with a bit of cable work).... ah.. and I don't really have that much time to knit - so I'm thinking that the sweater will be pushed to next fall and in the interim I'll finish off the socks I'm working on and probably work on a scarf and/or toque and then maybe a pair of trillium mittens to match the socks I just knit.

The down side to these wonderful trillium socks (in which my feet are currently happily snuggled) is that they seem to contribute to the intensity and frequency at which I get shocked. Yesterday night I was lucky not to break a glass, when I padded down to refill my water before bed, figuring that I didn't need any light until I hit the kitchen. I reached out to the kitchen switch and zap!!!!! Well, I dropped the glass and some how it must of hit one of the boxes waiting for the garbage before rolling across the floor - because it didn't break. It was a nice, visible arc of electricity. Since moving to the north, I've gained the habit of always grounding myself before touching my computer (metal desk frame is perfect) - but sometimes the light switches still get me. However, since I finished my socks, the shock factor is much worse.

On a completely random note, I stumbled across something disturbing in the news.... Apparently, the conservatives are hard at work, coming up with personal attack ads to rebrand Michael Ignatieff as a foreigner, American and a flip-flopper (their words not mine). One conservative was quoted as saying that they were concerned that it was too late and that they might have missed their chance to shape the view of the public firmly against Michael Ignatieff. Granted that politicians are expected to work towards getting elected - shouldn't the conservatives put their energy into developing policies that will make people want to vote for them because they are competant and heck, just put their energy into keeping our ship afloat in stormy waters..... Branding.... that is something corporations do to make people buy their product regardless of whether a product of equivalent quality and/or value exists. I, for one, don't care what party you are from - if you are the Prime Minister - your job is to run the country, not count the number of times the leader of the opposition used the word we, when referring to Americans. Frankly, personal attack ads are a form of bullying, so perhaps the Prime Minister and his party might want to consider the kind of values they are modelling for the youth of this country.

Two Socks and a Carving

My Trillium Socks are finally done!!! and they are warm and cozy and fit better than I'd hoped. I'm going to do one more two-handed fair-isle style pair of sock (or mitts) before I tackle my Kilim Sweater. As you can see my technique is much better than the last pair, but I still have to work on the tension with my right hand and the stranding was tight in a few places which is also unfortunate.

The Drum Dancer is a carving that I picked up while I was down in Arviat. I think he agrees that the socks rock.